


Savagery

by The_Dancing_Walrus



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2013-12-16
Packaged: 2018-01-04 21:38:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Dancing_Walrus/pseuds/The_Dancing_Walrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Underestimating John Harrison because of his daemon's shape was the stupidest thing Kirk had done in a long long time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Savagery

**Author's Note:**

> All you have to know about His Dark Materials to read this is that 'daemons' are an external physical representation of someone's soul. They take the form of an animal, changing when the person is young and settling into one shape when they mature.

He first saw John Harrison properly, daemon and all, on Qo’Nos and Kirk thought he’d understood the man. Because his daemon was a small, scarred creature like a balding skunk and it made perfect sense. As Uhura had said no one honourable could have betrayed them the way Harrison had and attacked the way he did. It felt right, justified, looking at this terrorist and seeing how low and twisted he was inside.

 

Kirk’s Wuari had let out a deep resonant growl as he’d approached, as he questioned them, as he _surrendered_ -

 

Jim had staggered to his feet, punch-drunk but Wuari had surged gracefully, silently, to hers. And while he’d panted his way through as much of the proper arrest procedure as he could stand Wuari had lunged for Harrison’s daemon.

 

The creature had stared at her and may be if they’d been thinking straight, if they hadn’t lost Pike and Scotty hadn’t walked away he’d have stopped and revaluated the man he was dealing with. An animal the size of a small dog that could look dispassionately, apathetically, into a lion’s jaws. As it was Kirk punched and Wuari lunged. Her mouth engulfed most of the daemon’s shoulders and she shook as though she was trying to tear the skin off the creature’s back.

 

Kirk punched his face and Wuari shook his soul until Uhura cried out for them to stop.

 

Harrison had looked back at him unruffled and unmarked. Wuari spat out his daemon with a snort of disgust. Harrison’s daemon had rolled to her feet and trotted back to his side unhurt, her head and tail held high.

 

And somehow Kirk had still managed to underestimate them.

 

*

 

Harrison, _Khan,_ had turned away from them in the cell when they’d talked about his crew, the people frozen with their daemons in the torpedoes. He’d paced. He’d snarled.

 

But his daemon had stood impassive an inch from the barrier watching Kirk, watching Wuari. Weighing them as if she was deciding how best to hunt them.

 

Which, as Wuari had growled at him later, was ridiculous because she was nothing more than an over-sized weasel.

 

*

 

It had been Bones who had asked. His Keerou had turned to perch backwards on his shoulder, examining them, the feathers on her head rising. She had hissed repeated, agitated demands in McCoy’s ear to know what _she_ was when he’d had been trying to concentrate on the tests he was running.

 

“Out of curiosity, what is your daemon?”

 

The corner of Khan’s lip had tugged upwards into something that was not quite a smile. He’d looked from the doctor to the grey parrot on his shoulder and back.

 

“A ratel.” Khan had replied.

 

*

 

None of them had known what that was and none of them saw what it meant until Scotty had found them a way on to Marcus’ ship.

 

It had all gone so well, easily considering the situation. And it should have been the end-game; Kirk with his phaser pointed steady at Admiral Marcus, Wuari with one huge paw at the throat of the Admiral’s wolf daemon, a twitch away from unsheathing claws. Kirk’s attention had shifted briefly to Carol Marcus and the agitated fluttering of her tiny parrot daemon. Then Khan had struck Scotty, who had crumpled, Carol and her daemon had shrieked-

 

Khan had barrelled into him, sending them both sprawling and he’d felt rather than seen Wuari release Marcus’ daemon to charge at Khan’s. The Augment’s first punch hit him across the jaw and he saw red and then grey before his eyes could focus again and then the second punch hit-

 

But even then he wasn’t truly worried because any second it would stop. Khan would freeze mid-fight as so many others had when their daemon had ended up under Wuari’s paws. Or the pain of a bite through the bond between man and daemon would make him scream, stop, allow Kirk to seize the advantage again.

 

Khan hauled him upright by his hair and agony tore through his stomach before the Augment’s kick hit home.

 

He was hurled across the command deck, straight at their battling daemons and he hit Wuari with enough force to knock her off her feet. It sent another stab of pain through them both and it hurt so much, too much for Kirk to understand what-

 

Carol was standing over them with a terrified expression, until Khan shoved her aside. There was a crunch and Kirk heard her scream-

 

Khan’s daemon trotted past them, her head and tail held high, strolling casually towards Marcus’ wolf. She growled, but her ears were flat against her head and her tail tucked neatly between her legs. There was blood at the ratel’s mouth, on her claws, blood on the command deck and blood seeping through the back of Kirk’s shirt from Wuari’s side.

 

“I’m sorry.” She murmured into his ear as they tried to stand and couldn’t.

 

They couldn’t see what Khan did to Marcus but they watched as the wolf lunged for the ratel and caught a mouthful of her thick black and white hide. They watched as the ratel twisted in her own skin, the way a child could squirm inside an adult’s jacket, and raked her claws over the wolf’s eye. They watched as the wolf dropped her and she turned a messy pivot to tear at the wolf’s throat.

 

They heard a horrible, wet crunch and the wolf faded away with an anguished shriek.

 

The ratel righted herself and sat for a moment calmly cleaning her claws while Kirk watched, fascinated, horrified, and wondered how he could possibly have underestimated Khan so much.

**Author's Note:**

> Ratel is an old fashioned term for a Honey Badger. I’m sure most people have seen the memes on these ferocious little creatures, less well known is that they are frighteningly intelligent and have been filmed using tools spontaneously in the wild. 
> 
> The idea struck after reading Animus, Animalia, Familae by tzzzz (which I recommend). It helped get me writing the Trek series again so (although it’s unrelated) I’m sharing it.


End file.
